What I really want to keep out of is open exchange . . . the margins aren’t ever going to support a publisher in that space
Matthew Schulte, Wenner Media
Wenner Media is hoping to elevate the presence of brands such as Rolling Stone and US Weekly in Canada through a partnership that will see Cue Digital Media manage its entire local digital inventory.
Cue Digital Media will have exclusive oversight over Wenner Media’s ad buys through a programmatic private marketplace (PMP) that also includes publishers such as Business Insider and Mail Online. The company boasts an audience of 17 million Canadians each month.
“For us, programmatic is just a piece of the bigger puzzle,” Wenner Media’s executive director of digital sales, Matthew Schulte, told Marketing. “I felt that if it’s going to the automated way, it would be great to be in a PMP where we have set pricing, a guaranteed position.
“What I really want to keep out of is open exchange . . . the margins aren’t ever going to support a publisher in that space.”
Schulte said that while Wenner Media’s Canadian inventory is obviously only a percentage of the whole, it’s still significant at approximately 1.7 million uniques a month.
For David U.K., Cue Digital Media’s founder and CEO, working with Wenner Media feels like a return to roots. He started his career working for Standard Broadcasting’s Mix 99.9.
“When you look at Rolling Stone, it’s a natural fit to our existing entertainment division,” he said, citing Funny or Die and College Humour among the other publishers. “We’re not looking for that high-volume, low-paying, performance type of ad environment. We want premium national brands.”
Cue Digital Media only has about 14 partners in its private marketplace, which U.K. described as “the cleanest, most premium exchange you can find.” This allows the company to work more closely with each brand and to hone its growth in specific verticals. These include sports and business/finance, U.K. said. “We really want to control the flow of the opportunities.”
Beyond managing ad inventory, Wenner Media is hoping to work with Cue Digital Media on brand integrations, which may include events.
“The obvious one is TIFF,” said Schulte, referring to the Toronto International Film Festival. “To be able to create something that’s localized, it lends its equity to both Rolling Stone and US Weekly. The biggest hurdle we have is everything we editorially create is international. It’s not exactly geo-targeted. That said, there are media moments where, even though it’s going to be covered internationally, it has such a draw in the Canadian marketplace.”
Other opportunities include native ads, which could also allow Wenner Media to be more locally relevant and targeted, Schulte added.
